WETUMPKA -- Two defendants in a high-profile Elmore County capital murder case were sentenced Wednesday by Circuit Judge Sibley Reynolds.

Aaron McDowell, 22, the admitted trigger man in the case, and Bernard Nix, 21, both of Alexander City, originally were indicted on capital murder charges in the 2011 slaying of 6-year-old Kenyatta Kendrick of Eclectic.

The district attorney's office allowed them to plead guilty to one count of murder and one count of assault each to get their cooperation in testifying against Stalandus Slaughter, 29, of Eclectic. Slaughter was convicted of capital murder and assault on Sept. 12 following a weeklong trial.

Tom Azar, one of McDowell's attorneys, asked Reynolds to consider giving McDowell a reduced sentence based on his level of cooperation in the Slaughter trial. Reynolds denied the request. McDowell was sentenced to 20 years on the murder charge and 10 years on the assault charge, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Nix received a 10-year sentence on the murder charge and a 10-year sentence for the assault charge, with the sentences to run concurrently. Both men received the sentence the district attorney's office had recommended as part of the plea deal.

"To the family, I want to say I'm sorry, wish I'd never listened to Stalandus," McDowell said. "I didn't mean for anybody to get hurt. From my heart I apologize, I'm sorry."

Prosecutors proved Slaughter was the mastermind behind the drive-by shooting Jan. 4, 2011, that killed Kenyatta as she slept in her bed on Nichols Avenue in Eclectic. Injured in the shooting was D.J. Kendrick, Kenyatta's uncle and a student at Elmore County High School at the time. D.J. Kendrick was shot once in the left thigh and once in the left foot.

Prosecutors told the jury Slaughter had insinuated himself into an argument between male cousins in the Kendrick family.

Slaughter will be sentenced at a later date by Reynolds to life in prison without the possibility of parole. That sentence became the only option when the state took the death penalty off the table before Slaughter's trial began.